Nah, at some point in the video, it stops making sense in regards of the actual timeline of the Zelda-games, but it is a comedy-movie anyway. Has a really likable Link and a truly beautiful princess Zelda, as well as … another person. Go watch it, it´s better than your usual fan-made stuff.

Not a time for lots of words. I just finished creating a hype-video for the upcoming E3. Spent the whole time on it, but when is there a better time to unleash your full inner nerd than around E3? Yeah, right. Whatever, I hope you enjoy what I composed, here it is:

All the rumor-talk about a next Smash Bros.-game gets my E3-hype only up all the more, so I took the time to think about what features, what kind of content I´d like to see in the next Smash Bros.-title for Café or 3DS. Below I listed five things that Nintendo needs to include to make me happy.

1.) Changeable Moves

A huge difference to the past three games, but the more I think about it, the less of a problem I see. Changing the moves of a character isn´t unprecedent, even fairly typical in a lot of anime-based fighting-games, such as Narutimate Hero for PS2 or the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi-series. These games let you decide what move is executed by what button-press. As big in content Brawl was, the freshness in terms of controlling all these characters was lost. Smash Bros. 64 was a great first entry, Melee improved vastly on that by adding the directional-B-moves as well as the ability to defend yourself in midair. Brawl added … tripping. Lol, no, of course, Brawl added a bunch of new gameplay as well, but it was more about environmental improvement. The characters had pretty much the same variety of moves as before.

I could see this being the big new feature of Smash Bros Café/3DS. All characters start out with a standard set of moves, but as you play the game, you unlock new moves, represented by some sort of trophy-like collectible. There would be unlockable moves of different categories, one category for each button-combination. At the end of unlocking all the content, there would be character-specific moves, moves that can only be used on a certain character. Maybe have three such moves for each category of each character. And then there´d be general moves that can be chosen for all characters. This wouldn´t only allow for a f***ton of classic, recognizable moves to be included (imagine choosing between Samus´ normal Beam, Plasma Beam, Ice Beam and Wave Beam for the B-button, or choosing between Link´s boomering, hammer or bombchus for the B+right/left-move), it´d also solve the problem of giving all fans what they want. For example, many fans want Ganondorf to have moves that he actually used in the games. Like using a sword, proper magic and stuff. But then there are long-time Smash Bros.-fans that want Ganondorf to stay exactly the way the grew to love fighting as him. Peace, baby!

2. New Characters

That is obvious, yeah. The two number one missing characters that I fully expect to see in the next Smash Bros.-game are Ridley (Metroid-series) and Krystal (Star Fox-series). Metroid really got shafted so far, with Samus Aran being the only playable character from the franchise. Yeah, we got Zero Suit Samus, but that´s hardly a new character per se. I mean, give us at least one enemy from each franchise so we have someone to fight, Nintendo. And Krystal would add both one more female character, not much of those, as well as introduce the first staff-fighter to the game. Speaking of staff-fighters, Nintendo could also add some Fire Emblem-character with a spear or such, and hopefully a series-villain, too. Other than those, the sky is the limit. There´s so many video game characters out there that would be tons of fun to have in Smash Bros.. I guess the most popular third-party-wish would be Megaman. But really, more important than adding new characters, Nintendo should concentrate on make the ones they already have as unique as possible.

3.) Trim down the Fat

Brawl has often been called “the ultimate Nintendo collection” or similar names, and it is true: The Wii-entry featured an encyclopedia´s richness of information, both in text and graphics and music. It also featured a singleplayer-adventure that by itself took around eight hours to beat a single time. And then we had a million of other game-modes. To be honest, I didn´t need all that. Especially the adventure-mode. The cutscenes were truly fantastic, but the mode itself was rather annoying and bland. And really, any true Smash Bros.-fan buys the game because of the fighting, not because of some sucky platforming.

Get rid of this hour-long adventure-mode and if it has to be there in some form, get it back to Melee-proportions. And while I hope to see a big soundtrack and wealth of information about characters again, do we really need all these small modes? I admit that I sucked at it, but stuff like the boss-run-mode or cruel Melee (whatever it was called in Brawl) didn´t really capture my heart. Same goes for repeating the All-Star-mode with all of the characters. And event-mode was fun in Melee, but really sucked in Brawl. I finished it because I´m addicted to finishing my games, but it was more of an annoyance than a “yay, I´m so happy to play this right now!”. And guess what, there´s two modes that Brawl was even missing. I want the “Finish the platforms” from the N64-game and the “Reach the Goal” from Melee back. Those modes offered a truly different experience. Oh, and either get rid of Target-mode or give every character his own level. Target-Test in Brawl sucked hard. Anyways, sometimes, less is better. More focus on the fighting and the truly fun bonus-modes, less “it´s there because it was easy to implement”.

4.) Against the CPU-cooperative modes and 4 vs. 4-battles

The former would feature a few different missions where up to four players are fighting against CPU-enemies, but not in the usual arenas, but specially designed mission-levels. And the goal here wouldn´t be to simply kill other characters, but to pursue real taks, like protecting a ship that is sailing on an ocean, trying to conquer a castle, trying to build a tower by using certain items to reach a high up point while simultaneously defending against attacking enemies. There could even be boss battles, like when you´re sailing mentioned ship, a giant sea monster appears that you have to fend off by using the ship´s own cannon.

The latter would introduce a whole new level of multiplayer-action to the franchise, while at the same time not overdoing it. Four players during battle should remain the standard battle-mode, but for adding a lot of new potential, I´d love to see a raised player-count. I don´t know, if that was possible offline, but at least online, it should be doable.

5.) Return to a mix of 64/Melee-gameplay

This is a hardcore-fan´s wish, so I kept it for last. The main reason why Super Smash Bros. Brawl didn´t captivate myself for not even close to as long as Melee, was not only the lack of available offline-friends. It was also because of the floaty, party-game-like gameplay. Yeah, yeah, some ignorant gamers laugh about the Smash Bros.-series, “fighting game, lulz”, but for all those of us that put a lot of time and effort into the franchise, the depth was obvious and extremely motivating. What I loved about 64´s gameplay was how impactful each and every move felt. Hitting another character with Link´s sword really made you feel the contact between sword and character, even without rumble pak. This got worse in Melee, but then again, Melee introduced a speed and dynamic to all the fighting that made it just as engaging. Combine the two styles and I´m sure we would experience the best Smash Bros.-game of all times.

And a small 6.), because I´m too lazy to edit this article´s title: Different costumes for every character, not just color swaps. Seriously, that´s not demanded too much, is it.

And small 7.), lol, because I just searched for a nice image for the top of this text: Maybe change the artstyle from the realistic one we have right now to a more cartoony style, resembling the original game´s boxart. As can be seen above.

A new generation of home consoles is confirmed to be unveiled at this year´s E3. The Wii-successor, known as “Project Café”. There is a multitude of crazy rumors flying around, the most prominent being a built-in screen in every controller (which I believe was misinterpreted from those that reported it initially). But, of course, big part and big reason for a new generation of consoles is and has always been the jump in sheer processing power.

The rumors about Café´s power go from “a little bit better than 360/PS3” all the way to “significantly more powerful (than the current HD-systems)”. Basically, will we face a repetition of the Wii-strategy, or are we going to relive a PS2-like situation? Both would put the Café in the third rank, compared to the expected power of Xbox 720/PS4, but the latter would enable Nintendo´s new system to enjoy long-lasting third party-support, while the former might give them superior versions of current gen-titles, and then suddenly support drops off like a cliff. Both is realistic, but I´m not going to talk about the likeliness of one over the other. I want to express how it just doesn´t matter. At all.

Right off the bat: The reason why I´m kinda tired of my 360 is not its visual shortcomings. I have a (still) modern gaming-PC that can run multiplatform-titles in higher resolution and with much more details than Microsoft´s system is capable of. Yet, I´d gladly play more often on my 360. The reason I don´t, is that there´s nothing of interest. To me, I will consciously add. There´s Mass Effect 3 that I´ll buy, so I can use my game saves from ME1 and ME2. And there´s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, though I might buy that for my PC instead. Other than that, nothing. And I´m not saying that there aren´t well-made, high quality games still coming out on the system. But only to me, they´re boring. They´re always the same. They´re … shooters.

People are waiting for a Halo: CE-remake. They´re waiting for Modern Warfare 3. For Gears of War 3. For GTA5 (which could turn out positively different, but …). But it´s not only shooters, sure. They´re also waiting for the cool MGS: Rising. For Dead Island. For Skyrim. For whatever. But even if you fail to see it: To me, these games appear oh so un-special. Maybe you can see what I mean when I put it like this: The reason why you are waiting for these games is because of their new setting, their new story, their gruesomeness, even. However, it is not because of they offer new in terms of gameplay. So it isn´t used in a too ominous way, let me explain what I mean by claiming such a seemingly bold thing. The two HD-console games that made me feel like I´m playing something that wasn´t possible in the same way on GameCube/Xbox/PS2 are Dead Rising and Assassin´s Creed. Dead Rising had all these zombies, all that interaction, all these objects – what happens when you try to recreate that on a power-lacking hardware can be witnessed in the Wii-port of the game. Assassin´s Creed similarly featured a high count of npcs, but more importantly raised the bar of environment interaction close to the limit of what is creatively doable. Climb up almost everywhere, freedom total. And they´re adding a grappling hook in AC: Revelations, “oh my god” is what I said out aloud. These two games actually felt like an effort to break the barriers of last generation and introduce gaming to a new world. And then that stopped.

The Wii 2/Café might turn out to be just a slightly more powerful 360, but I´d happily buy that system. Why? Well, because I feel like there´s currently two scouting ships sailing within the vastness of an unknown ocean of possibilities, obviously unable to explore it all alone. All that while the other ship-manufacturers keep investing their money into adding fancy, shiny decoration to their big, slow ferry boats that keep driving between point A and point B, because it´s making them enough money to be content with, or because they´re too scared to enter the realm of unknown depths.

I am not claiming that it is safe to say that Nintendo´s entering the HD-era of gaming and instantly finding out about those unexplored possibilities. But I feel a strong disagreement for those people that beat down the Café already, only because of the potential that it might just be on par with the 360 and not introduce the next jump in power. So much creativity went missing in-between all those shooters and “mature” aka kiddy “cool games” or games that tried to mimic Hollywood-movies instead of pursuing the medium of the video game (in before “but why has it to be either or?” Don´t ask me, ask the industry´s reality). Since I know that it is a favorite amongst a lot of gamers (not my favorite, teehee), I´ll end this opinion (and you´re free to disagree) by throwing The Legend of Zelda: Majora´s Mask into this debate. Majora´s Mask was released towards the end of the Nintendo 64´s lifetime, yet it introduced a shockingly fresh gameplay-concept. And it was a smaller game than Ocarina of Time. It didn´t pursue the mantra of “bigger, prettier, better“. It dared to take an unexplored idea and that would later turn it into one of the fans´most beloved Zelda-games. It was released at the end of 2000. The same time when Sony´s Ps2 launched.

PS: I admit that I myself would be a bit disappointed if Café was just a slightly improved 360 in terms of power. You simply expect big things from a next generation console, and no matter the power, that´s what the Wii 2 is going to be in type. But not only is the above article my true view on the relevancy of processing power, it is also backed up by my current gaming reality. A superior gaming PC, a 360, a Wii, a N64 – all connected to a screen and still in use. Starfox 64 still rocks. Baten Kaitos Origins still wants me to finish it. And I´m not playing these games because of their looks, haha. Power is important. But power only can do so much. That´s what is the truth for me, when talking about whatever power range Nintendo shows up with their new system.